negation by nitakomp 30. Sept 2013
Hi there,
I have got problems with negation Which sentence is right: Ich treibe keinen Sport/ oder Ich treibe nicht Sport.
Thanks for your help . | oliver  30. Sept 2013
Ich treibe keinen Sport. is better. The other isn't completely wrong though. | lomastv0909 13. Nov 2013
I'm self-studying German, and this is what I have found:
(A) from HAMMER's German Grammar 4th Ed -p117 " Kein or Nicht ?"
(1) generally, KEIN is used with an indefinite pronoun
e.g. Sie hat kein Auto.
Ich habe keine Zeit
(2) NICHT is used in other cases, esp. to negate a whole sentence
e.g. Sie will huete nicht mitkommen
(3) However, there are contexts where the choice is not completely obvious ...such as
(a) Ich spreche KEIN Deutsch. ( 5.5.16.b.i)
(b) Er spielt NICHT Klavier (= play piano)
Sie laeuft NICHT Schi (=ski) ( 5.5.16.b.ii) (page 118)
REASON: the noun is so closely linked to the verb that it is felt to be an equivalent of a separate prefix
(B) from 2 online dictionaries dict.cc and BEOLINGUS
(1) Treiben Sie Sport?
(2) der Sport ( plural die Sporte is seldom used)
(C) from LINGUEE.com (search for TEXTS containing the relevant word or words)
(1) either "KEIN Sport treiben" or " KEINEN Sport treiben"
(2) cannot find "NICHT Sport treiben"
(D) CONCLUSION
==============
It appears that in spite of page 118 of HAMMER's, the common usage as indicated by LINGUEE search is KEIN or KEINEN Sport treiben. Perhaps "KEIN Sport" is the preferred choice for conversational German, as the word Sport is from English, and therefore DAS Sport may be more common than DER Sport. Anyway, a native German would provide the final answer, as he or she would have a better feel of the language. | lomastv0909 13. Nov 2013
Sorry, I misspelt
-in A.2 heute (=today) , rather than hUete
Many Thanks for reading.
Any native German speaker? Please comment. |
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